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This is much higher than in most other countries – in Sweden it is 7 per cent, in Norway 12 per cent and in Germany 23 per cent.

To add to the pressure on British families, more than two-thirds of the salary that is left after paying for childcare is ‘effectively taxed away’. This is ‘well above’ the 52 per cent average among the 34 countries in the OECD.

According to the Daycare Trust, it costs an average of £206 to put a child under two into a nursery for 50 hours a week in England, an increase of more than a third in the past seven years.

Warning: Daycare Trust chief executive Anand Shukla has said the childcare system is in need of major reform

Anand Shukla, chief executive of Daycare Trust, said: ‘Some families are no better off when the mother returns to work after maternity leave.

Ministers say that work should always pay and they are changing the benefits system to make this happen.

‘But the childcare system also needs major reform as the cost is forcing parents to turn down jobs or end up in hardship.’